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British Rail’s short experiment with travelling pubs (2020)
- skrebbel 4y agoThe Hague has a fine dining restaurant in a (functional, moving) tram: https://www.hoftrammm.nl/en https://www.hoftrammm.nl/en
- denton-scratch 4y ago"Mock tudor" is an abomination. Fake lead-paned windows? Fake beams that are too low, so people bump their heads? There are some old country pubs with low ceilings and beams; but they're low because back in the day, people were shorter. So you see beams labelled "Duck or grouse". It's mad that they chose to emulate in a moving train a dangerous mis-feature of old pubs. Phonyness all is phony, to misquote The Zim.
- flarg 4y agoThe first class carriage between Bristol and London served free sandwiches, fruit, papers - and wine on a Friday evening. How civilised it was sitting amongst judges and bankers with my discount short haul ticket with a pocket full of free food and a gratis glass of plonk to console me when I got to Reading and the interminable wait for the Blackwater line
- zeristor 4y agoIt seems this was posted 3 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22863636 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22863636
- movedx 4y agoReminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLF7yife8YE&vl=en https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLF7yife8YE&vl=en -- "My Unlicensed Hovercraft Pub Is Technically Legal"
- rsynnott 4y agoDO NOT GIVE THE WEATHERSPOONS GUY IDEAS.
- netsharc 4y agoNext: an 80's office on rails: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HbrI3refig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HbrI3refig (first ~5minutes).
- Symbiote 4y agoHere's [1] a picture of the conference room on an Italian high speed train. I've seen similar rooms/compartments on other trains, but I can't remember which and can't find any more examples. [1] https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/frecciarossa.htm https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/frecciarossa.htm
- pimlottc 4y agoI scrolled through the page you linked but I don’t see whatever image you’re referring to
- netsharc 4y agoSearch for "Executive class meeting room". In the YouTube video the presenter says that the train has 4 phone lines, hah, nowadays a businessperson might have a mobile phone and a data SIM for her laptop...
- connordoner 4y agoI think some German trains have them too?
- aaron695 4y ago[dead]
- buildsjets 4y agoThe Long Island Railroad (Metro NY commuter rail) used to operate a bar car on the rush hour trains, as did Metro North. Discontinued years ago. Sorry for the Pintrest link, couldn't find a better photo resource quickly. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/31032684922734675/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/31032684922734675/ https://www.city-data.com/forum/long-island/885214-lirr-bar-car.html https://www.city-data.com/forum/long-island/885214-lirr-bar-... https://untappedcities.com/2020/02/06/when-metro-north-had-a-jungle-tiki-bar-car-on-its-trains/ https://untappedcities.com/2020/02/06/when-metro-north-had-a...
- showerst 4y agoAs far as I know Amtrak still sells beer. They even have some decent regional beers.
- yuppie_scum 4y agoThe Downeaster has some very choice Portland (ME) brews
- brewdad 4y agoThe Amtrak Cascades certainly did at least before Covid. The pricing was pretty close to stadium prices but they had a good selection of local beers.
- trynewideas 4y agoStella Artois, Deschutes porter, Elysian Space Dust IPA, and Rambling Route cider for $7.50 as of October: https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/menus/routes/Amtrak-Cascades-Cafe-Menu-1022.pdf https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/p...
- bombcar 4y agoYep. I recall that the pricing was such that buying Arrogant Bastard from Stone wasn’t that bad a deal. https://www.pacificsurfliner.com/globalassets/pdfs/2019_market-cafe-menu.pdf/ https://www.pacificsurfliner.com/globalassets/pdfs/2019_mark...
- partiallypro 4y agoVaguely reminds me of this: https://www.thedrive.com/news/38221/the-mctrain-the-rise-and-fall-of-mcdonalds-ambitious-plan-to-conquer-the-railroads https://www.thedrive.com/news/38221/the-mctrain-the-rise-and...
- pm90 4y agoFYI for Bay Area residents: Caltrain allows open containers on rides. BYOB though.
- one_more_q 4y agoI love that, especially when the giants are playing and tons of people are having a good time when you are on your way home from work. Also funny when they exit in the city and the police immediately greets them and makes them throw away any leftovers ;)
- parker_mountain 4y agoThey are prohibited after a certain hour (10p? idk) and after events, such as sports games. If you're grabbing one for a commute, it's totally fine though!
- smcl 4y agoI dunno why but for some reason Trains and alcohol go well together. I'd usually get a beer for my train ride for visits home from Edinburgh and Montrose (<2 hrs) as a student
- zeristor 4y agoI’m not sure if it has a pub name, perhaps: Ye Olde Snowpiercer
- ggm 4y agoTom Driberg, the MP mentioned in the article was a very very interesting character. And, was fond of a drop or two. So his objections were to the thing being faux mock-tudor (faux-mock because mock-tudor is a defined style, this was a fake of a fake) not that it existed at all, in my view. He was a communist, a homosexual, he was a gossip columnist journalist, had reported in the spanish civil war and munich, Was accused by a right wing columnist as a soviet spy.. And still had time to complain about British Rail making a pub on wheels.
- SoftAnnaLee 4y agoI mean, from what I know about the gay communists, they love to complain about the misuse of trains. Thanks for the highlight on the man though, he seems like somebody to read up on!
- ggm 4y agoThe entire cohort of labour post war was fascinating. Soldier citizens, mixing with professional parliamentarians, social activists, renegade upper classes, soviet supports/opponents.. gays, you name it. At one point, MI5 was bugging some of them (illegally) and they started using Yiddish as an attempted code to avoid being understood. I think their assumption this was "Navaho code-talker smart" was misplaced, there would be plenty of Yiddish speakers in the espiocrat community. When I say "was a gossip columnist" I'm playing him down. He was the man behind the Daily Express's "William Hickey". He kind-of defined that decades voice. This was the cohort who built the welfare state. Jokes aside, it was amazing what they achieved against the reaction from Churchill and his followers.
- m4rtink 4y agoThere is a pub tram here in Brno, Czech Republic: https://www.salina-pub.cz/ https://www.salina-pub.cz/ (CZ) It has been traveling the Brno tram network in the evenings since 2013.
- stevekemp 4y agoThere is a pub-tram in Helsinki too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A5raKoff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A5raKoff It makes an appearance in this video if you seek to the appropriate section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF45gG2C3IY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF45gG2C3IY
- tuukkah 4y agoThe long-distance trains say they have a selection of craft beer in the restaurant cars: https://www.vr.fi/en/facilities-and-services/restaurant-car https://www.vr.fi/en/facilities-and-services/restaurant-car Some check-ins: https://untappd.com/v/ravintolavaunu/1472247 https://untappd.com/v/ravintolavaunu/1472247
- smcl 4y agoIt is kinda fun, I took it to přehrada for ignis brunensis one summer, unfortunately it sells Starobrno :D That said, they do a nefiltr 12° now that's pretty drinkable
- type0 4y agoReminds me of The Titfield Thunderbolt good cheerful movie and they had a bar wagon there as well trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYvt8Dqjdvk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYvt8Dqjdvk
- kepler1 4y agoForgive me for being negative, but it doesn't seem to me that anything that faces the public in the UK is allowed to be nice any more. Lack of funding, overzealous safety and cost regimes, plus hooligans who will deface anything, and you have a country where everything has to be made industrial-ugly, if even made at all these days. (except for private office buildings for finance people)
- taylorius 4y agoI do know what you mean. Everything's designed to not get damaged and not cause anyone to get sued these days. Victorian buildings and vehicles on the other hand, just seem to look gorgeous by default.
- iggldiggl 4y ago> Victorian buildings and vehicles on the other hand, just seem to look gorgeous by default. Even a sewage pumping station: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abbey_Mills_Pumping_Station_main_building_(1)_-_2022-04-03.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abbey_Mills_Pumping_Stati... vs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_abbey_mills_pumping_station.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_abbey_mills_pumping_s...
- BoxOfRain 4y agoI know what you mean, I used to think about this as I went through the Elan Valley quite often. The Victorians dammed the valley to supply water to Birmingham and even though being in a rural part of Wales few people would see them compared to most industrial constructions they put real effort into the aesthetics and made them look stunning. If we were damming a valley today we'd build some hideous concrete monolith and call it a day without even putting a nice facade over it.
- dgroshev 4y agoIt sounds true, but I'd be wary of selection bias (ugly and shoddy Victorian buildings got demolished and replaced) and glorification of old (lots of Victorian terrace houses just seem "quaint" nowadays but would not be acceptable newly built). Plus there are some good counter examples I think, Elizabeth line or Battersea reconstruction come to mind.
- soneil 4y agoA funny story that's vaguely related - Here in Ireland, alcohol sales were prohibited on Good Friday until surprisingly recently. But there were some exceptions, and one of those was travelling. I've heard stories of people buying a ticket to the next town so they could park themselves in the Station Bar for the afternoon. And the lockdown equivalent - a budget flight so you have similar free rein of the airport for the day. edit: the quote “nobody likes them except the public and the public have flocked to them” rings awfully familiar around here.
- disgruntledphd2 4y agoThis is still the case. I was getting an early train at around 7.30 one Saturday, and there were a bunch of people drinking in the train station. The staff member told me they were regulars. For context, most pubs won't open till 10.30am or later.
- ronnykylin 4y agoMy only idea is that glass-topped tables seem to be too slippery for a moving train. Imagine when you spill the liquor on the table.
- redler 4y agoThe Roads Must Roll.
- RF_Savage 4y agoThere's a Koff branded red bar-tram roaming around Helsinki. It is also available for rent.
- jossclimb 4y agoThe golden age, before everything had to be privatised and run into the ground.
- dgroshev 4y agoFWIW gross ridership numbers suggest it was an era of slow decline, until it got privatised and the number of passengers skyrocketed https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GBR_rail_passengers_by_year_1830-2015.png https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GBR_rail_passenger...
- cinntaile 4y agoThis was an experiment from 1949, the privatization of the railways started in 1994. They really have nothing to do with each other in this case.
- didntreadarticl 4y agoWell, except that one happened in a time before the other, which was jossclimb's point, I believe.
- cinntaile 4y agoThe experiment ended decades before privatization, they are completely unrelated.
- didntreadarticl 4y agoExcept that the experiment happened before privatisation, rather than after, which is the point, I think?
- CalRobert 4y agoI blame the Oxygen catastrophe myself.
- Doctor_Fegg 4y agoMore recently, these Class 442 trains had a pub-like “snug” area: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpmarks/8211495519 https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpmarks/8211495519 (The trains were scrapped last year to some dismay - they were the pinnacle of commuter comfort in their day.)
- mFixman 4y agoIt's sad that long-distance trains are moving to an aeroplane-like food service. Standing up and walking several carriages to the bar buy an overpriced might be less efficient than than having it delivered to your seat, but it feels so much better.
- NamTaf 4y agoImagine knocking off for the day, rolling into your favourite post-work boozer, having pints with your mates for a couple of hours and then it drops you home as you finish. Talk about efficiency! This could totally help ease the housing crisis in London if spun the right way. I’m sure of it!
- lbriner 4y agoThe problem is that the Brits are notoriously bad a moderation with alcohol (I am British) which leads to lots of social problems both on the train itself and at the stations you alight late at night. Alcohol is already a problem on most night-time train services and if anything, the operators are more likely to ban it than encourage it (I think some already ban drunk people getting on the train in the first place)
- arethuza 4y agoAlcohol is completely banned on the Scottish rail network: https://www.scotrail.co.uk/about-scotrail/our-rules-travel/alcohol-ban https://www.scotrail.co.uk/about-scotrail/our-rules-travel/a...
- walthamstow 4y agoIt's banned on all Transport for London services as well, courtesy of one mayor B. Johnson You can drink and get away with it, the ban kind of serves as a deterrent for bad behaviour and gives guards/police an easy way to get rid of people being drunk pricks (which is not technically illegal)
- teh_klev 4y agoOnly on ScotRail trains, which largely operate with Scotland. However the ban doesn't extend to services that operate across the border. Yet another minor pleasure ruined by an overbearing Scottish government driven by a handful of idiots.
- prennert 4y agoI travelled recently on a smallish Scotrail train to Edinburgh on a Friday evening. On the table next to me were a couple in their 50s who brought out a red-white checkered table cloth and crystal wine glasses, like a posh picnic. With inimitable style they mixed lemon Fanta with Gordons Gin in their crystal glasses, but wisely kept the Gordons in their bag to avoid too much provocation. They behaved well, just their faces started to colour-match their table cloth by the time they got to Edinburgh. The conductor did not mind. If anything, I think he was a bit jealous. (This train terminated in Edinburgh and was going no-where the English border)
- jillesvangurp 4y agoLong distance trains in Germany have a restaurant wagon that serves beer and wine. Really nice on long journeys to have the option to go there. Good trick if the train is full and you have no reservation to head straight there and just hang out there. It's one of those things that just works without escalating in Germany. I've never really seen people get really drunk there. It's mostly just people having a couple of beverages with their food.
- tgvaughan 4y agoSwitzerland also. Although you can also just BYO and drink anywhere on the train.
- plantain 4y agoAs a tourist, despite the pretty poor food I love the novelty of the DBahn restaurant carts. Something about having a sit down meal whistling along silently through the countryside at 200kph just seems cool.
- smcl 4y agoYeah the restaurant car is a great choice, there's something really lovely about chilling out with friends and a beer while the European countryside whizzes past.
- jimlikeslimes 4y agoIn the UK I think the Pullman carriage still operates mon-fri 6pm leaving Paddington travelling west. Silver service dining, and is pretty good fun.
- badpun 4y agoSame in Poland. Unfortunately, getting a table is far from guaranteed, because lots of people just hoard it for the duration of their entire journey.
- j00pY 4y agoI would have loved something like this that helped ease the boredom of commuting. I could imagine actually looking forward to getting on the train and interacting with fellow passengers in the bar rather than just seeing the same people for years and never acknowledging them
- zeristor 4y agoThere are stories of commuters learning a language together on the same commute. It is a weird situation to be in sitting next to the same people every day, the only chance to make conversation being if there is a problem in the service and you have to work out how to use the buses. Working from home though has almost completely unraveled that.
- tiku 4y agoThe (2020) in the title is a bit misleading..
- zeristor 4y agohow come? the article itself was from 2020, although the pub train is dated as 1949, I took the date of the article to be the date to use when I submitted it. Good point though, like the finger pointing at the Moon. Is it the finger or the Moon that is the important thing.
- aa-jv 4y agoOne of my first great experiences in Germany was getting on the train in Düsseldorf on the way to Berlin, and finding myself in the Bar cabin, where I could order as much alcohol as I wanted. Later in the ride, the cabin was converted into a club/disco and it was awesome. Sometimes it feels like Germans know a freedom not well expressed elsewhere in the Western world ..